I’ve been following the development of Unrest for a long time. An RPG set in ancient India, with fantasty flourishes, the game received Kickstarter funds to the tune of $36,251 this time last year. It’s the story of five people “who are struggling to get by in the in the famine-stricken city-state of Bhimra”. Decisions are based around political and social upheaval rather than wearing one shiny belt instead of another, and Pyrodactyl promise complex branching conversations. The game is out on July 23rd and a demo is available right now.

One of the most intriguing features is the continuance of stories following the death of seemingly integral NPCs. The narrative will even continue if player characters die. Expect a game of long-term consequences, many of which will no doubt be invisible during a brief demo. But at least you should be able to figure out if this is your cup of Darjeeling.

To me it mostly depends on how much I get out of a game. For $15 I can buy roughly two movies on DVD, which comes out at about four hours of fun. And seriously, I get more out of most games for the same price. (If you want to approach it in such a calculated way.)

The graphic is… Ugh. Like they wanted to go all artsy but they didn’t really know much about art in the first place. The style is nice, the execution not so great.
However, the plot left me intrigued and I love complex dialogues. I’ll give the demo a try.

Don’t let it get to you, there’s no pleasing everybody! If anything, Spiderweb willingly produces games that are low-graphics, and are usually well beloved my RPG fans.
Solid, interesting stories are what I buy RPGs for.

The negative comments seemed to be because they didn’t like the art. But having played the demo a bit now I can see that it suits the game perfectly! (note: was playing in a window at the default resolution)

Character animations in the dialogue windows are particularly nice. The characters are just really nicely observed and animated. There are lots of details, the environments are all actually really well put together for the purposes of playing the game while still being convincing and full of character. The art is all clearly original and not just derived from existing stuff. And the style, simplified while still based in realism, works perfectly in letting you immerse yourself in the world and the story.

Honestly I just think people take for granted how much skill goes into making something that functions well. I much prefer the art in Unrest to certain other isometric-viewpoint games where nothing quite feels like it fits together properly. And I’ve just been talking about the art, not the story or the game mechanics, which seem like the focus of the game, or the music, which is also great.